5 January 2013
Posted by Dan Satterfield
Eric Law of the NWS shared this picture. The feeling that we live beneath a huge sea of air is a myth. Space is just a 15 minute drive away if we had a motorway that ran straight up! This picture is from around 30 kilometers high as the balloon burst.
Dan Satterfield has worked as an on air meteorologist for 32 years in Oklahoma, Florida and Alabama. Forecasting weather is Dan's job, but all of Earth Science is his passion. This journal is where Dan writes about things he has too little time for on air. Dan blogs about peer-reviewed Earth science for Junior High level audiences and up.
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I use a bochi ball that has a bit of paint pealing off to describe the crust and atmosphere in lectures on the relative size of our planet and its structures..I mic the paint with a simple digital micrometer, measure the ball with a bar micrometer and make them work the math out at their desks. Their books give them the numbers but they are abstract, crunching the physical model on their calculators and notepads brings to life just how close we are to the great outdoors. As your photo does so well.
“Space is just a 15 minute drive away if we had a motorway that ran straight up!” More like an hour drive if your car is going 100 km/hr.
While the view at 30 km altitude may “look” like being in space, the standardized definition of where space begins is at 100 km altitude.